Where Is the Sex in Political Theory?

In the tradition of political theory, women and sexuality are rarely mentioned. When discussed, they are almost always treated together-women become nearly synonomous with sexuality while men, regarded as political or intellectual subjects, are disassociated from sex. This essay explores the implications of this phenomenon for political theory's construction of women, sex, and politics. It also examines the implications of the historical association of women with sex for contemporary feminist political thinking. The essay concludes with considerations of the ways in which traditionally gendered sexuality needs to be recast in order to liberate both women and politics from this history.     

Revolution in the making? Social media effects across the globe

Social networking sites are popular tools to engage citizens in political campaigns, social movements, and civic life. However, are the effects of social media on civic and political participation revolutionary? How do these effects differ across political contexts? Using 133 cross-sectional studies with 631 estimated coefficients, I examine the relationship between social media use and engagement in civic and political life. The effects of social media use on participation are larger for political expression and smaller for informational uses, but the magnitude of these effects depends on political context. The effects of informational uses of social media on participation are smaller in countries like the United States, with a free and independent press. If there is a social media revolution, it relates to the expression of political views on social networking sites, where the average effect size is comparable to the effects of education on participation.     

Concerns Raised in Sex

NEARLY a decade after the first human sexuality research was begun in China, nine associations and four research institutions have been established to further explore the science of human sexuality. As a result, the country's first large-     

Negative connotations in the use of the term “public relations” in the print media

A taxonomy of the connotative meanings of the term “public relations” was developed using 100 articles chosen from the popular press that yielded 254 uses of the term. Eight categories evolved: public relations used correctly, public relations as a corrupter of the channels of communication, public relations as a corrupter of the democratic process, public relations as sleight of hand, public relations and winners and losers, public relations misused as a synonym, and public relations used as an identifier. Less than 5 percent of the citings were judged to use the term correctly; 37 percent were negative, and only 17 percent were positive.Henderson is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.     

Sex Inversion Operations in China

IN July 1992, Dr. Xia Zhaoji, 58, and his assistants surprised the world by successfully completing the world's first operation to partially replant human internal reproductive organs. BBC broadcast this 8-minute news story ten days later, followed by AP, Reuters and AFP, as well as some other domestic and international media. What is a sex inversion operation? Why should people change their sex? And how is it     

On the limits of “wired identity” in the age of global media

Spaces of Identity: Global Media, Electronic Landscapes, and Cultural Boundaries. David Morley and Kevin Robins. London: Routledge, 1995.257pp.; $55.00 (cloth) $17.95 (paper).

Virtual Geography: Living with Global Media Events. McKenzie Wark. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.253 pp.; $29.95 (cloth) $14.95 (paper).     

The political economy of South Africa in the interwar period∗

Economic policy in South Africa in the interwar period is discussed in the context of differences between the economic power and political influence of Afrikaner as opposed to mining capital. Previous analyses have been limited by overgeneralisation, narrowness of scope and analytical methodologies which have overemphasised class agencies at the expense of actual and potential economic linkages. State economic interventions are shown to have differed in influence and in impact by area of application. No coherent policy was followed for the development of industry based on agricultural products. Instead, policies were subordinated to devolving central power to fragmented agricultural interests. Industrial policy is shown to have been confined to protection, other forms of subsidy and the creation of a state sector around heavy industry rather than being linked to a strategy of diversification out of the base provided by the activities associated with mining. Despite this lack of a conducive framework, preliminary research reveals that constrained industrial diversification did occur in isolated cases, including chemical and industrial diamond products, suggesting that other development trajectories were possible.     

Does the medium matter? A meta-analysis on using social media vs. traditional media in crisis communication

There has been a growing body of crisis communication research that treats social media as a critical variable, which might alter how people perceive and react to crisis communication messages. The meta-analysis of 8 studies (k = 22, n = 3209, combined n = 9703) compared the impact of social media vs. traditional media in crisis communication. Five studies (n = 1896) contained 8 relevant effect sizes on crisis responsibility, representing 3294 individuals. Seven studies (n = 3185) contained 14 relevant effect sizes on persuasiveness, representing 6409 individuals. Compared to traditional media, using social media significantly lessened consumers’ perceived crisis responsibility (r = -.134, 95 % CI -.212– -.054, p = .001). There was no significant difference between using traditional media and social media in crisis communication on persuasiveness (r = -.039, 95 % CI -.114– .035, p = .30). The moderator analysis indicated that for both crisis responsibility and persuasiveness, the effect size was more noticeable when an organization communicates with college students vs. non-student publics. The ability of social media in dampening crisis responsibility was more pronounced for fictitious organizations compared to real organizations. Compared to traditional media, social media was significantly more negative for preventable crisis, the influence was weak for accidental crisis. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, as well as directions for future research.     

Is Sex Work Sex or Work? Forming Collective Identity in Bangalore

While sex worker activism grows increasingly vibrant around the world, the forms and practices of sex work vary widely, and are often secret. How do sex workers come to see themselves as sex worker activists? What tensions emerge in the formation of collective identity within sex worker activist organizations, especially when the term “sex work” has often traveled linked to transnational organizations and funding? To answer these questions, this article analyzes in-depth interviews and participant observation on sex worker activism in Bangalore, India. Focusing on an organization I call the Union, I argue that it was first within the “shop floor” of transnationally funded HIV prevention organizations, and then within the activist work of the Union, that sex workers came to identify collectively as activists at a large scale. However, distinct configurations of practice among gendered groups of sex workers in Bangalore meant each group related differently to the formation of a sex worker activist collective identity. Two aspects of sex workers’ practice emerged as particularly central: varying experiences of sex work as “sex” or as “work,” and varying levels of anonymity and visibility in public spaces. Organizing through transnationally funded HIV prevention programs helped solidify these categories of differentiation even as it provided opportunities to develop shared self-hood.     

Reshaping Southern history: Studies in the development of Agrarian capitalism in the nineteenth‐century South∗

The Reshaping of Plantation Society: The Natchez District, 1860–1880. Michael Wayne. Baton Rouge, La: Louisiana State University Press. 1983. xiv, 226 pp. £22.95.

White Land, Black Labor: Caste and Class in Late Nineteenth‐Century Georgia. Charles L. Flynn, Jr. Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana State University Press. 1983. xiv, 196 pp. £17.90.     

Has Social Work Heeded the Call? Sex Offender Content in Social Work

The relationship between theory, research and practice in the contemporary UK social work curriculum is examined in the context of the New Labour Government's insistence on making explicit the connections between knowledge, research, standards and ‘best practice’ in its regulatory discourse. The argument suggests that far from being obvious, settled or predictable in the way in which this discourse suggests, the relationship between research, theory and practice is highly contentious and certainly unresolved. The article then goes on to look at concepts of theory and research. ‘Theory’ is seen as having evolved with little reference to evidence and ‘research’ is seen as having established a new intellectual hegemony without having engaged with or contributed significantly to the development of practice theory. The article concludes that the trend towards a professional and intellectual fragmentation of the social work discipline needs to be reversed if students are to develop their own ‘research mindedness’.     

The myth of the surrogate∗

There is as yet no method in general use comparable to couple sex therapy for the treatment of individuals. It is proposed that the development of such a method is impeded not only by the stressful nature of newly‐created treatment relationships, but also by the age‐old belief that this stress can be eliminated by finding the right substitute partner. This belief has sustained inappropriately simple strategies for the treatment of individuals despite negative findings, giving it the status of a myth. Although Masters and Johnson recognize that the stress cannot be so easily eliminated, in their reliance on the surrogate to bypass this stress, they have lent indirect support to the myth. As a consequence, we now have the myth of the surrogate, a treatment conception that creates performance pressure in the surrogate and thus is likely to reinforce performance anxiety in the patient. Guidelines for alternative methods are suggested, including the use of a co‐therapy structure, with body‐work a potential rather than a requirement and with more attention paid to the subjective experiences of the participants.